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Speed thrills as supercar dazzles Toronto AutoShow

Sebastien Forest, CEO and president of HTT Technologies Inc., the Montreal automaker that has built the first Canadian supercar. (Colin McConnell / Toronto Star)

By Paul ChoiStaff Reporter

Thu., Feb. 17, 2011

If you like speed — particularly homegrown speed — make a beeline for the HTT Pléthore LC-750 at the Canadian International AutoShow.

Making its second appearance at the annual Toronto event, the Montreal-built supercar — Canada’s first — is sure to get even the most speed-obsessed motor hound salivating.

Boasting 750 horses under the hood and capable of going from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds — with a theoretical top speed of 388 km/h — the Pléthore can burn some serious asphalt.

But at $495,000, the showstopper from Quebec is also capable of leaving singe marks on the wallet.

It certainly lives up to its name, which is French for plethora, or overabundance.

“It’s the best-balanced car that’s ever been built,” boasts HTT president Sébastien Forest. “We’re not the fastest car, and we’re not the best at one specific element, but we’re perfectly balanced.”

With a powerful V8 engine mounted in the middle of the car, and a body made entirely of carbon fibre, the car has a low centre of gravity and is undeniably light, tipping the scales at a svelte 1,250 kilograms. These factors make the Pléthore’s handling second-to-none, Forest says.

“Power is pretty easy to get, handling is difficult,” he explains.

A couple of wealthy investors on CBC’s Dragons’ Den seemed to share the same opinion of the sleek and sexy ride. Business gurus Brett Wilson and Robert Herjavec, a car buff in his own right, agreed to invest $1.5 million for 20 per cent of the company in a recent episode.

They also each agreed to order a car for themselves.

But before you pull out the chequebook, understand the target market for these excessively expensive speedsters is excessively wealthy millionaires.

Forest understands the market for costly exotic cars, like Lamborghinis and Ferraris, is small. But he’s confident it’s a viable business, even in economically uncertain times.

He envisions the company eventually taking 50 orders a year, primarily from burgeoning millionaires in Russia and China. Thus far, seven orders have been placed, mainly from the U.S. and Europe, and production is expected to begin by the end of the year.

As for Canada, there have been no takers yet, a surprise given the car’s home-grown roots.

“We’re realistic, we don’t expect to take 10 or 15 orders in Canada,” says Forest, who acknowledges the market for supercars is minuscule in this country. “If we get one or two orders (in Toronto) we’ll be more than happy.”

In the interim, the company hopes to put the Dragons’ Den investment to good use by ironing out some niggling financing issues and further marketing the car.

You can check out the Pléthore LC-750 on the 100th level of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre’s north building, from Friday to the show’s close on Feb. 27.

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